Sunday, September 6, 2009

A short introduction...

This is mainly for the P650 (Learning in New Media class), but feel free to read away.

As I mentioned in class, I'm beginning my 3rd year in the Learning Sciences program. My interest involves how people (not just kids) learn music through technological means (i.e. GarageBand, Pro-Tools, Band-in-a-Box, etc.). With the advent of new technologies, anyone can write a song. But is it harmful or helpful with which these types of programs make it so easy to create a piece of music? And, can a learning tool be developed to foster music learning using popular technolgies I previously mentioned?

Previous work I have done involved the game Rock Band and what (if anything) players learn about musical concepts when they play the game. Preliminary analysis seems that , yes, indeed they do learn about rhythm. Future projects include "Creative Paths to Peace" where youths here in Bloomington will connect with youths in Tel-Aviv Israel and learn about music while developing cross-cultural understanding. You can read about these, plus other musings at MichaelDownton.com. I may end up posting some of the things from there over to here as well.

Thats it for now. This past week my family and I have been moving out of a house that we lived in for 10 years to a place here in Bloomington. Needless to say we're not completely moved in yet, but it's getting there.

2 comments:

  1. Good luck on the move! You might want to keep us posted on some of your work on Rock Band and TuneBlocks this year as it might be relevant to the course. Nice graphic!

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  2. Creative Paths to Peace sounds remarkable. Hope to hear more about it!

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